Learning a New Story:
At the outset of the project I was first thinking I might do a Japanese folktale. I lived in Japan while a college student and I completely enjoyed the experience. When I started reading what other classmates were doing it reminded me of several trickster tales about Anansi the spider that I had read previously for another class. I had enjoyed the stories so much that I thought it would be fun to share one with young children.
Early Research:
I started looking for information online about Anansi the Spider. I found some very good websites created by teachers and storytellers and those sites led me to other resources. I started collecting books by going to the Burleson, Cleburne and Joshua Public libraries to check out books and I bought one book from Amazon.
Further Investigation:
As I begin reading about the Ashanti people of Ghana in West Africa and the origins of the Anansi stories, I also found some of the stories were attributed to originating in Jamaica and the Caribbean. I found that the stories originated in West Africa but due to active merchant trade and slave trade to the Caribbean the stories had traveled with the people. The people of Jamaica adapted the stories over time to reflect their experience as slaves. In some stories Anansi is no longer represented by a spider, but instead by a man. In all cases, Anansi is clever and a trickster. He solves problems to help others at times and at other times he is greedy and self-absorbed. Additional research is reflected in my cultural research paper previously submitted.
Collaboration Journal:
My partner is Karri Thompson. We initiated contact on March 13 and agreed to be partners. We made plans to get in touch later in the month when some of the other projects were complete. We texted again on March 29 to confirm our plans. On April 6 we communicated again and confirmed the stories we were eating planning to do. We made plans for a phone conference on April 7. We talked on the phone on April 7 and talked about how we wanted to procede. We gave each other some feedback and ideas about the props we are planning to use. We shared what works best for each of us in terms of getting and giving feedback. We decided to do a practice video to share with each other by Thursday so that we can offer each other some feedback. We talked on texted several other times, especially on Sunday, April 12. We both sent shorts videos of ourselves telling our practice story.
Practicing the Story:
Very Rough Draft of ANANSI THE SPIDER, A WEST AFRICAN FOLKTALE http://tinyurl.com/loqzlze
Sharing the Story:
I shared the story on Tuesday, April 14 for the first grade class at Keene Elementary School in Keene, Texas. I shared the story at 9:00 am.
Learning a New Story:
At the outset of the project I was first thinking I might do a Japanese folktale. I lived in Japan while a college student and I completely enjoyed the experience. When I started reading what other classmates were doing it reminded me of several trickster tales about Anansi the spider that I had read previously for another class. I had enjoyed the stories so much that I thought it would be fun to share one with young children.
Early Research:
I started looking for information online about Anansi the Spider. I found some very good websites created by teachers and storytellers and those sites led me to other resources. I started collecting books by going to the Burleson, Cleburne and Joshua Public libraries to check out books and I bought one book from Amazon.
Further Investigation:
As I begin reading about the Ashanti people of Ghana in West Africa and the origins of the Anansi stories, I also found some of the stories were attributed to originating in Jamaica and the Caribbean. I found that the stories originated in West Africa but due to active merchant trade and slave trade to the Caribbean the stories had traveled with the people. The people of Jamaica adapted the stories over time to reflect their experience as slaves. In some stories Anansi is no longer represented by a spider, but instead by a man. In all cases, Anansi is clever and a trickster. He solves problems to help others at times and at other times he is greedy and self-absorbed. Additional research is reflected in my cultural research paper previously submitted.
Collaboration Journal:
My partner is Karri Thompson. We initiated contact on March 13 and agreed to be partners. We made plans to get in touch later in the month when some of the other projects were complete. We texted again on March 29 to confirm our plans. On April 6 we communicated again and confirmed the stories we were eating planning to do. We made plans for a phone conference on April 7. We talked on the phone on April 7 and talked about how we wanted to procede. We gave each other some feedback and ideas about the props we are planning to use. We shared what works best for each of us in terms of getting and giving feedback. We decided to do a practice video to share with each other by Thursday so that we can offer each other some feedback. We talked on texted several other times, especially on Sunday, April 12. We both sent shorts videos of ourselves telling our practice story.
Practicing the Story:
Very Rough Draft of ANANSI THE SPIDER, A WEST AFRICAN FOLKTALE
http://tinyurl.com/loqzlze
Sharing the Story:
I shared the story on Tuesday, April 14 for the first grade class at Keene Elementary School in Keene, Texas. I shared the story at 9:00 am.
The video is available on YouTube at the following link:
https://youtu.be/RV6R8AfyAtI